2007 Pontiac G6 Retractable Hardtop

Today, you can get one for about $100 (or even less). Once the basic technology was hammered out, the focus turned to stamping them out in ever larger quantities — at ever lower prices. It’s the same with automotive gadgets and technology. Like GPS, which went from being an ultra-exclusive (and ultra-expensive) feature found only in a few high-end cars to a commonplace option on cars costing as little as $20k today.

Or retractable hardtops.

As recently as a year or so ago, the handful of cars that offered this feature were premium-branded — and premium-priced. But just like GPS, retractable hardtops —
— which offer the same secure feeling in bad weather (and bad neighborhoods) as a hardtop coupe with the option of open-air motoring just a touch of a button away — are filtering down to reasonably priced cars in the $30k and under segment.

The latest of these is the retractable hardtop version of Pontiac’s G6 four-seater coupe.

Its base price of $28,500 puts it in the same general ballpark as a well-optioned Ford Mustang convertible, Camry Solara ,Chrysler Sebring or Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder — three otherwise similar middling-sized sporty two-plus twos. But these are all conventional soft-top convertibles; which means they’re great on warm summer days — but much more vulnerable to environmental (and human) damage when the day’s not so nice. Or the side street where you’re about to leave it’s a bit on the sketchy side. One slice of the switchblade later and whoever wants in is in.

You’re left with a huge bill — and an equally big leak.

Hence the attraction of the folding metal hardtop. Push a button and 30-something seconds later, the car’s as solid and tight as a conventional coupe. The GT”s metal panels also won’t get moldy, crease or do the other annoying things regular convertibles sometimes do as they age — especially if they’re parked outside.

Some buyers may be concerned the electric motors that raise and lower the hardtop could eventually fail — probably doing so at a most inconvenient time, like just before a massive downpour. But this is a potential problem faced by owners of regular convertibles as well — and in both cases, the manufacturers make provision for emergency manual operation of the top (via hand-operated cranks) so that it can be closed — if with some difficulty — should the motors conk out some dark and soon-to-be-stormy night.

A more substantive problem — at least for the nominally “sporty” G6 — is the additional sheetmetal cellulite added by the power hardtop’s folding sections, mechanisms and motors — as well as the structural bracing that had to be added to the chassis to recover the structural rigidity sacrificed by cutting off the fixed-in-place roof.

All told, these beef up the car’s curb weight by some 400 lbs. compared to the standard G6 coupe — to nearly 4,000 lbs. before adding driver or passenger.

The issue for the G6 is that like a latter-day Elvis chuffing sweatily through a series of karate chops under the klieg lights, it’s hard to be convincingly athletic when you’re lugging around a load like that — especially when the strongest available engine (for now) is a 229-hp 3.9 liter V-6 (in the $29,990 GTP).

The standard GT’s 201-hp 3.5 liter V-6 suffers even more obviously under the yoke of all that bulk.

It doesn’t help matters that Pontiac decided not to offer a manual transmission with either engine — which further detracts from the sporty car ambiance. There is a manual shift function for the 4-speed automatic — but it’s just not the same as having a clutch and being able to row the gears for yourself.

Best case scenario is zero to 60 in about 8.5 seconds — which is a best so-so for a car with sporty pretensions. This is easily the G6’s weakest link given Pontiac’s performance oriented reputation — and the way the car’s being marketed. It would do fine if its target audience consisted mainly of Camry Solara/Chrysler Sebring-types — you know, hausefraus and middle aged guys. Right lane drivers. But the Mustang/Eclipse types Pontiac wants to sell this car to may come away from their test drive muttering “where’s the beef?”

Pontiac does have a solution on deck — in the form of a 250-260 horse V-6 that will become available later in the model year (or in early spring/summer 2007). It’s just unfortunate this powertrain wasn’t offered from the get-go. Pontiac — which is supposed to be an enthusiast driver’s brand — may suffer for the disconnect between the G6’s toned appearance and its middle-aged-spread performance.

Like the soon-to-be-dropped GTO, the G6 retractable hardtop may wind up a victim of ineffective marketing and brand positioning — rather than any defect or problem with the car as such.

Had Pontiac brought out the new GTO as a the “Pontiac GT” (or something like that — so long as it wasn’t “GTO”) there wouldn’t have been the inevitable and unfortunate comparisons between the sedate-looking sleeper and its raucous muscle car namesake of the 1960s. Likewise, Pontiac might have made a big mistake over-selling the performance image of the G6 given the absence of anything underhood to back it up.

Better to focus on the usable back seats, the attractive lines — and the coolness of a retractable hardtop for less than $30k.

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Eric started out writing about cars for mainstream media outlets such as The Washington Times, Detroit News and Free Press, Investors Business Daily, The American Spectator, National Review, The Chicago Tribune and Wall Street Journal.